1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of content browsing and more particularly to session completion during content browsing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Content browsing refers to the retrieval and presentation of electronic content in a browser client. Content generally can include electronic documents, audio, audiovisual and video materials and imagery. Most commonly, content can be stored in a server environment and published for access by content consumers over a computer communications network such as the global Internet. Content consumers, in turn, can retrieve content over the network by reference to a network address for the content. Once retrieved, the content can be presented in a browser client including not only conventional visual browsers such as the venerable Web browser, but also in alternative browsers such as those deployed in pervasive devices and those supporting different modes of presentation such as the audible presentation of material.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the protocol by which much of content browsing occurs in the World Wide Web (“Web”). HTTP is stateless in that a client computer running a Web browser must establish a new Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) network connection to the Web server with each new HTTP GET or POST request. The Web server, therefore, cannot rely on an established TCP network connection for longer than a single HTTP GET or POST operation. As such, session management is a technique used to make the stateless HTTP protocol support session state. In session management, session information is stored on the Web server using a session identifier (session ID) generated as a result of the first request from an end user through a corresponding Web browser.
Content browsing in a session often can become such that a completion of the session becomes inhibited. Typically, a session can become inhibited due to the limitations of computing resources at hand, for instance available network bandwidth or processing power, or even the functionality of the content browser itself. In this regard, content browsing in a pervasive device such as a smart phone can become inhibited due to limited connectivity, or the limited functionality of the embedded content browser of the pervasive device. In the case where a content browsing session becomes inhibited, oftentimes the only choice of the end user is to terminate the session and begin anew from a different computing device. To the extent the content browsing session involved a complex set of interactions such as setting forth travel reservations or completing a lengthy application, restarting an inhibited content browsing session can be frustrating to say the least.